For the Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16712, 30 January 1926, Page 12 (Supplement)

For the Sabbath

EVENING HYMN. The happy sunshine all is gone, The gloomy night comes swiftly on: But shine Thou still, 0 Christ our light, Nor let us lose ourselves in night. We thank Thee, Father, that this day, The angels watch'd around our way, And free from harm and vexing fear, Have led us on in safety here. Lord, have we angered Thee to-day?" Remember not our sins we pray, But let Thy mercy o'er us sweep, And give us calm and restful sleep. The angels guard our hours, And keep afar all evil powers:' And Thou all pain and mischief ward From soul and body, faithful Lord! • —N. Hermann, 1560 (from "Lyra Germanica"). DOUBTS AND FEARS. Who knows most, doubts most; entertaining hope ' Means recognising fear; the keener sense Of all comprised within our aotual scope Recoils from aught beyond earth's dim and dense. Who grown familiar with the sky will grope Henceforward among groundlings? That's offence Just as indubitably: stars abound O'erhead, but then . . . what flowers make glad the ground! —Browning. TRIBUTE TO SUNDAY SCHOOLS. The monthly reviews do not often depart from their custom of dealing with politics and general affairs to discuss matters like the Sunday School, but the Empire Review makes this comment:—■

Some mischief was done upon a recent Sunday afternoon by a party of boys, and the explanation offered by their parents was that their Sunday School teacher had gone away for the week-end. Here was food for reflection. The old-time teacher, we suspect, did not go away for weekends; that it was not the fashion is no matter; the teacher would not have gone if it had been. The school was a first engagement on Sundays, and the older of us can recall many ladies, and some others, who taught a class of children on every Sunday of their active lives. Often unconsciously, they did a great social work. Social work was not much talked about in those days, but a great deal of it was done. Children saw their Bible and their Church, their Theology and, their Ethics, as these were reflected from teachers whom they -respected, and often loved; the impressions remaining long after the details of their instruction had been forgotten. Anyone whose acquaintance lies much among middle-aged people of elementary education must know what cherished memories they have of their Sunday Schools and teachers.

Is this pleasant and useful influence being lost? Statistics of Sunday Schools, Church of England and Free Churches alike, seem to show that it is, although an impressive number of children still remain in the schools. The matter is one of gravity. The Sunday School must not he allowed to fall into the position of a decaying institution. It is capable of an enduring and beneficent influence upon the next generation, and the youth of that generation must riot be allowed to evade it.

If the children of the present day are less tractable than those, of the past—and this is probably the case—-

then the Sunday Schools must learn to handle them with new skill and new methods, but they must not lot them escape, or a personal interest and contact is lost for which there is no substitute. These are times for the making and strengthening of bonds, and it is pitiful to hear what complaints there are of scaroity in teachers, scout-masters, club-work-ers, and other friends and guides of girls and boys. We are told, not without some bitterness, that those "who have received a generous education keep it exclusively for their own use and pleasure, w T hich suggests that the education has been defective. Otherwise, it must have contained some ideas about the generous use to which it should be put.

THE PEOPLE'S GREATEST BOOK,

The annual report of the British and Foreign Bible Society has just come into our hands, and, as usual, it is rich in human interest (says the London Times The year 1924, which it reviews, is the third In the Society's history in which over ten million copies of Scripture have been circulated; these figures were reached twice during the war, when conditions were abnormal, but in 1924 there was no extraordinary circumstance to be taken into account. Never before, the Society states, has it sold so many English Bibles, and out of every ten books sold by the Society about four were sold in China. The Society expressly denies its right to claim that every one of these ten million books fulfilled its mission; but, on the other hand, it can truly claim that the work of missionaries would be made in many lands Impossible were it not for the books which it supplies to them. Also the books can and do penetrate where there are no missionaries. In many Moslem countries the Society gathers evidence of a greater openness of mind to the presentation of the Gospel, and it has learnt of the Scriptures being studied in the sacred cities, Mecca and Medina, where no Christian missionary is permitted to enter. In India, according to nonChristian testimony, the Bible "has undoubtedly given stimulus to "religious thought"; and in accounting for the great demand in China the Society mentions as one of the causes the very hostility which is now aroused against the missions, as the instruments of foreign imperialism, inasmuch as that hostility has itself stimulated curiosity among a race of traditional readers and respecters of books. But "all our endeavours to gain an entrance into Russia have failed"; the importation of the Scriptures into the Soviet Republics is forbidden. A Russian Bolshevist who bought a New Testament in a Persian town admitted that it would be a dangerous possession for him. Hardly less sad, however, are certain experiences of the Society's colporteurs in countries where Christianity is the established religion. In Italy on one occasion the books were rejected as "Mussolini's books"; nothing was wanted that Mussolini had praised. Elsewhere in Europe they were "immoral books published by the English," or they were "heretical," or, again, they were "Roman Catholic." So greatly, even in the oldest homes of Christendom, may their nature be misunderstood. The Society does not mince matters. "We know full well that, as in most lands, the masses of the people in Ceylon are not olamouring for the Scriptures," but for that very reason the Sooiety takes measures to press its wars on the indifferent Its gallant colporteurs face all sorts of discouragements, hardships, rebukes, and even violence in order to spread, as an Italian educationist has called it, "the people's greatest book." But they do their work with dignity, tact, and good-humour. When no payment is possible they give freely. The Society issues books in 572 languages; last year the New Testament was published in nine new ones, and revisions of versions already in use are constantly proceeding. As far as possible, the printing is done in the country where the language is spoken; but speakers of a language or a dialect are often to be found in countries other than their own. To the Society, for instance, Australia, which one thinks of naturally as English-speaking, is a polyglot continent, where the needs of a miscellany of foreign elements have to be served. There are also ancient centres of population which arc almost Babels; Alexandria and Port Said, for example, are strategic points on which many languages converge. Here the Society makes special mention of the "bigotry, superstition, and crass ignorance" which it has to overcome; on the continent of Europe it finds the obstacle among the Socialists.